The other side of legal immigration - America needs to know the whole truth, not a part of it. "Foreigner is a memoir inspired by real life events with some imagination added for the purpose of story-telling. Through my experience, I hope to bring to light the many injustices of the American immigration system where there is no provision for someone like me to immigrate legally, even after 9 long years. That is why I have called legal immigrant an urban myth because in my experience it does not exist. Foreigner is an in-depth narrative of the many roadblocks faced by someone who desperately wants to do the right thing but is forced to get on the wrong side of the law, not through their own fault but because of the way the system is set up. I would like to take away some of the growing resentment against immigrants in this country by showing the people of America that there are those like me who are suffering too. I never broke the law, always paid my taxes and cared about this nation like every other American. But today I am broke and on the verge of deportation because I was trying to follow the law. I hope the people will see the injustice as I do and raise their voices against it. I don't want anyone else to go through what I did, or things much worse. As long as I can start a conversation, my struggles would have been justified." Pratyusha Jain (Author)
About the Author: My name is Pratyusha Jain. Somewhere along the line, I got the name Pat or Pattie because Pratyusha sounds like Patricia. Family and number of close friends call me Poshi or Posh. So I have many names, you can pick any one you like or come up with your own. I was born on September 4, 1985 in a small city in India called Ujjain. I had a fairly privileged life growing up and I moved to the US in 2007 to complete my undergraduate studies. I attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, NY. I started out an engineering major but eventually switched gears to Business Administration. I have a Bachelor of Science degree and am a certified Project Management Professional. I started writing when I was about 8 years old. My first work was a short poem about waterfalls. It was my grandfather who always encouraged me to write and took great pride in my work. For a number of years after that I exclusively wrote poetry. At age 16 I had finished working on my first novelette that I called Shades of Blue, but it never got published because of some disagreements I had with the publisher back then. My parents still insist on getting it published some day! Ever since I was very young, I have been extremely passionate about writing and being a published author has always been a life-long dream. In my personal life, I am currently single and live with my two adorable and spoiled cats, Izzie my girl, who is 5, and Milo my boy, who is 3. I love the city of Buffalo and everything that it has to offer. I love being outside, especially in summertime and I am fond of everything water- I like being in it, on it, around it. I wish I had a set of gills! I am also a fitness enthusiast and an aspiring yogi who dedicated to looking and feeling good, both inside and out. Although I am a big foodie, I lean on the side of eating clean. I leave the pigging out for special occasions. Foreigner is especially close to my heart, not only because it is my first published work but also because it is the most heartbreaking story of my life so far. I will continue to hope for a better future but I would also like to make a difference in this world in whatever small way that I can. My style of writing has always been serious and somber, so I suppose no one else could have told this story better than myself. I hope to shed a new light on immigration through this memoir.